When It Counts
by Serenity Starke
Summary: This is the first thing I have ever written.  This is an AU ending to the episode Ho'apono and a comment that Danny made. Constructive criticism most welcomed.


"_Oh yeah, I wish you were here, but you don't swim do you?_"

"…_I swim very well actually_."

The conversation played over in his head as Danny was running for all he was worth for the end of the pier and dove in the water after Steve.

Those words from Steve had been music to Danny's ears. He couldn't believe how much that warmed his heart to hear Steve admit that he missed him. He doesn't know exactly when it happened, when…he fell in love with his partner, but he was hopelessly and insanely in love with that Navy Seal psycho who has done nothing but raise his blood pressure since he met him.

That Navy Seal had been on board the U.S.S. Missouri without him and trying to stop a possible real psychotic Navy Seal from killing hostages. Hostages that he had taken while trying to escape H.P.D. because he was a suspect in his wife's murder.

Danny didn't know why, but Steve believed the man, Graham, to be innocent, hence the reason he, Chin and Kono had been working as quickly as possible to find out if Graham was innocent or not.

Danny doesn't know exactly what went wrong, but from his observation from the pier, it looked like Steve was in real possible danger of being shot by Graham and then out of nowhere, a much older man, possibly one of the hostages, had tried to sneak up on Graham and keep Steve from getting shot. Danny at first was grateful for the man's actions, but then it backfired. Graham had been extremely edgy and when he heard the man approaching, he spun around to shoot the older man but Steve, the dumb hero that he was, jumped up and got in the line of fire. The shot had enough force to send Steve over the rail and into the water.

Before anyone could make sense of what was happening, Danny ran past the SWAT team and dove straight off the pier and started swimming with all his might directly to the area where Steve had gone overboard.

Danny reached the area where Steve had fallen in and began diving and searching frantically. On shore, Chin and Kono, finally realizing what was going on, ran towards the end of the pier.

"What the hell is Danny doing?" Kono asked. "He doesn't even know how to swim!"

But to both Chin and Kono's surprise, Danny could not only swim, he swam well.

Just as Chin was about to enter the water to help Danny find Steve, Danny popped up out of the water with his arm around Steve, bringing him towards the pier in a classic lifeguard's hold.

Danny's heart was in overdrive. It had taken him five or six dives before he located Steve and he knew the moment he had grabbed him that Steve was in real trouble.

As he floated on top of the water with Steve in his grasp, he took a few deep breaths to prepare himself for the swim back to the pier. As he reached the pier, he was glad to see there was a dock running parallel to it and Chin was there ready to help him get Steve out of the water.

Chin and Kono both reached for Steve and raised him up and out of the water and laid him on his back. Kono ran back to the edge to help Danny up onto the dock.

Danny was shaking so badly at this point, he was tired from swimming, diving and lugging Steve back to shore, but it was his concern for Steve that was making him a mess.

Steve was lying so still and his lips were beginning to turn blue. Chin had his fingers on Steve's neck looking for a pulse. There wasn't one.

Danny could tell by the look on Chin's face that it wasn't good, but he refused to acknowledge that look and he began to perform CPR. Ever since Danny had fallen for Steve, he had wondered what it would be like to feel his lips, but this definitely was not the way he wanted to find out!

Kono was applying pressure to the gunshot wound in Steve's upper right chest and Chin was putting pressure on a gash on Steve's forehead where he must have hit it on the railing as he fell overboard.

The paramedics were finally making their way down to the dock and they rushed over and silently moved Danny to the side so they could work on Steve. A few moments later, Steve began to cough and hack up water and take in gulps of air. Danny had never been happier in all his life to hear someone retching! It meant that Steve was alive.

The paramedics stabilized Steve and loaded him into the ambulance. Kono made Danny ride along with them so that he could get checked out too, just in case. Danny was happy to go along if for no other reason than to watch and make sure that Steve was going to be o.k.

On the way to the hospital, Steve was in and out of consciousness and Danny sat as close as possible to him without being in the way of the paramedics. He grabbed a hold of Steve's hand and gave it a little squeeze and as he did so, Steve came to and looked deep into Danny's eyes, with what Danny could only describe as profound gratefulness and maybe a little bit of affection.

Danny smiled at Steve, squeezed his hand and said…."Told you I could swim."


End file.
